Electronic services earmarked for remote areas

JEDDAH, Nov 03, 2012 (Arab News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is currently in collaboration with Yusur Company to study the construction of digital booths to provide e-government services in villages and remote areas, an official source told Al-Madinah newspaper.

The source explained that the project aims to study the provision of booths fully equipped with the necessary apparatus that would facilitate connection to a high speed Internet connection -- wired or via satellite, and secure delivery of e-government services uniformly in villages and remote areas.

He pointed out that if the outcome of the study concluded the importance of the implementation of the project, it would be implemented within the Universal Service Fund program or as an independent project. It may also be implemented through mail centers, and further study its provision through bank ATMs if they are available in those areas.

The idea came about due to the the lack of equipment and services to the people of those areas, in addition to weak infrastructure of those areas for broadband and 3G services. The lack of infrastructure makes access to electronic government services difficult or practically impossible.

This leads to the inability of a large segment of people to take advantage of these services and reluctantly having to travel to major cities in order to complete their transactions on their own.

This also reduces the expected value of e-government services in terms of being available to beneficiaries and that should not force them to come and go to government departments in person.

He added that some of the benefits of some government programs that provide aid or living subsidies to those areas, complain of the difficulty of access to such assistance due to lack of electronic government services in their areas and having to travel to major cities to use those services, which use up most of resources provided for them.

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